Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Trading Pictures with Half Sibling

We saw a picture of our children's half sibling. Very cute little girl. I saw a resemblance with my son especialy around the eyes. But then again I was looking for a resemblance. I sent a picture of our kids last night.

Seeing a picture of this little girl makes the concept of a half-sibling all the more real. It's one thing to trade e-mails but seeing a picture makes her so much more real. I wonder how my son will react when he meets her. We have not shown him her picture as we have not jointly decided with the half sibling's family what to call the kids when we would first meet.

To be honest I am not sure when I should show him her picture. Obviously before we meet so he has some familiarity when they meet. But now? Only I guess if we were all to decide at this age to fully explain that they (the kids) share a common donor. But then again sharing a picture of a new friend is normal as well. It's wild what thoughts / questions are raised bya simple little act of showing a picture.

1 comment:

Julia said...

My daughter knows the basic of how babies are made. She knows you need an egg from a woman and sperm from a man. She knows that Mama got spem from a donor in order to conceive her.

I always referred to my daughters 1/2 sibs as the kids who have the same donor or 1/2 sibs but last summer when my dd was almost 4 yrs we were going to meet two other families. There was a girl (age 5yrs) and a boy almost 2 yrs. Prior to their vist we were lookig at photos of the kids and I expalined again that each mother had used sperm form the same donor. From that moment on SHE called them her sister and brother. I was a little uncomfortable about taht at first but she has continued to use that terminology so I take my cue from her.

PS None of the adults initially wanted the term brother/sister but that what the 4 and 5 year old use so that how it is now.